Despite the increased pressure from do-it-yourself (DIY) systems, the professional alarm-monitoring market is expected to thrive over the next five years, as connected systems supersede traditional alarm-monitoring systems. Traditional alarm monitoring in the Americas region is expected to continue to expand in 2018, but it will start to decline in 2019, as more systems are converted into web-connected offerings.

Amazon has been offering security packages to select cities and states in the United States since around December 2017, albeit somewhat under the radar. The company’s security offerings include a smart package, smartest package, indoor base, outdoor base and outdoor plus. Prices for the packages vary from $240 to $840.

Alarm.com and Comcast’s acquisition of Icontrol, finalized March 8th, will make for stiff competition in the coming years for other providers of professional home automation systems. Although Comcast is a telecom, and telecoms often get poor customer service reviews, this has not slowed its growth as a home automation and security provider.

America is the most developed market for smart home systems, where providers of connected professional monitoring services led the market in 2015, with more than 5.5 million customers. As consumers tend to prefer professional installation -- a “do-it-for-me” approach to smart homes -- professional security providers are well placed to offer these services to the mass market.

Although multi-system operators (MSOs) have made significant inroads into the residential alarm market; they still have a long way to go before they can claim to have truly conquered the traditional security provider’s stranglehold on demand.

What used to be a fairly straightforward (but regulated) industry is now increasingly convoluted. Since multi-system operators (MSOs) began offering security solutions in 2010, the residential security industry has been flooded with new products, solutions, protocols, marketing messages and new partnerships. Although these are all ingredients for a potential paradigm shift, the dust hasn’t yet settled.